Valhalla’s Gates

Manchester City – Stoke City

My first prediction from today is from the match between Manchester City and Stoke City. This will be the first match of Roberto Mancini as City’s coach, after the chairmen of the team deceided to fire Mark Hughes. The italian was their best solution, after being turned down by some other managers.
Man City is currently fighting for the 4th place, the last one that allows a team to qualify for the Uefa Champions League play-off for the 2010-2011 seasson. City is now 6th, 6 points behind Aston Vill, but one match less than the Birmingham team. Their last match was a really insane one, also on City of Manchester Stadium : 4-3 against Sunderland. Despite the victory Mark Hughes gor sacked one or two days after the match, as the team was considered to not be as on graphic as planned for this time of the seasson.
Stoke, their today’s opponents should be pleased with their so far overall results. Stoke is 11th, having 21 points in 17 matches, 5 points away from the “swamp” zone, the 18th place, 1st place that doesn’t allow a team to continue for the next season in Premiership (and surviving this season is one of their objectives). Stoke isn’t in their best form, having 4 matches without victory in Premiership. Their last victory was more than one month ago, 1-0 with Portsmouth, on the 22nd of November.
I don’t see another outcome in this match than a City’s victory, but I do see Stoke scoring one time, at least, so my bet, over 2.75 should be another natural outcome for this match.